Gut microbial signatures in hospitalised patients under SARS-CoV-2 infection

This study investigates alterations in gut microbiota composition associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Faecal samples were collected from COVID-19 patients recruited at Arnau de Vilanova Hospital (Valencia, Spain) between July and October 2020, and from non-infected controls. Samples were heat-inactivated at 70 °C for 10 minutes before processing. DNA libraries were prepared from faecal DNA to assess ~4.5 kb 16S–23S rRNA operon amplicons following MinION Mk1C sequencing. Bacterial species candidates for differential abundance between patients and controls were selected for functional experimental evaluation.